Nigerian govt okays amendment of list of pioneer industries, products

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the amendment of the list of pioneer industries and products in the country and a tax holidays of three to five for those captured.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah, at the end of the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja.

The minister told journalists after the meeting which was chaired by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo that the list was last reviewed in 2006.

He said the new review exercise was an incentive to make people enter the country’s market and invest more in existing companies.

He said: “FEC approved a memorandum that was presented to amend the list of pioneer industries and products that will enjoy pioneer status going forward. Many of you know the pioneer incentive scheme is governed by the Industrial Development Income Tax Relief Act and the whole purpose is to give tax holidays to industries we consider pioneer.

“Pioneer doesn’t mean that they are new, it only means that they are not yet mature, we want those industries to grow. We want to attract investment in them and you will find that this covers a wide range of industries and those tax holidays ranges from three to five years.

“The other thing we also did is to agree that the pioneer list will be reviewed regularly every two years if things come up. We live in a fast changing world and we are being responsive to our world. In the case of additions to the list, they will be effected immediately, for deletion of industries that we consider mature there will be a three year window that will be allowed for those that are already investing in that industry that were enjoying pioneer status to carry on till the end of that three year period.

“Against this backdrop, we then approved 27 industries that were recommended for addition to the pioneer list today. We also recommended and it was accepted by the Council that mineral oil prospecting which is governed by the Petroleum Profit Tax should not be part of the pioneer industries list which is really industries governed by the Companies Income Tax Act.

“It was also accepted that given the success we have achieved in cement which are now net exporters, maybe that is an industry which we could say that we are now where we want to be in terms of maturity even though there is still a lot of scope for the application and the use of cement and you know that will continue. We already have critical mass in cement.”

The minister said that in carrying out the review, special attention was paid to the current realities that would help in implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

He said the council also approved recommendations to remove all ambiguities in the definition of industries by reclassifying industries according to international standard that is being used by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).